7IS #2

This publication is the outcome of the second workshop conducted together with students from the graphic, interior and industrial design department of the university ‘George Enescu’, in Iași. Located in the Moldavian region, Iași has traditionally been one of the leading centers of Romanian social, cultural, academic and artistic life. Nearly one third of Iași’s inhabitants are students, making the city a breeding ground for a new academic generation.

Gev Rec

The research was conducted together with students from the graphic design department at the Dokuz Eylűl University in Izmir, Turkey. The participants were developing among other things a colour scheme of the city, creating neighbourhood maps, alienating iconic structures of the city or making a ‘How to behave guide’ for men. Izmir is a large metropolis in the western extremity of Anatolia. It is one of the most westernised cities in Turkey and the third biggest city in Turkey with 2.8 million inhabitants. The metropolitan area spreads along the outlying waters of the beautiful Gulf of Izmir.

B

The research was focusing on social issues and graphical communication elements in the city of Bucharest. We were exploring the city with nineteen students from the graphic design and the fine art department from the National University of Arts, UNArte in Bucharest. Students developed interventions and campaigns referring to topics of tolerance, environment, traffic, wayfinding and many others. Including design thinking as a way to support social change and improvement.

CQC

The publication is the outcome of a workshop conducted with 15 graphic design students and teachers from the Modern International Art and Design Academy (MIADA) in Chongqing while we were teaching at the MIADA for a semester. The city is a metropolitan area of more than 31 million people in the center of China. The research was focusing on personal visual stories and experiences relating to the city. The collection of work reflects a contemporary critical and social orientated perspective on the modern Chinese urban lifestyle. The rural depopulation around the city was an important and recurring topic.

B34

Thirty-four students from the Photo/Video FVPCI department at the National University of Arts in Bucharest developed different themes referring to their home city of Bucharest. Abandond places were visited and documented, traffic problems visualized and poetic interpretations of the city were designed.

hermann

During five days we explored their city together with pupils from a German high school, students, teachers, librarians and biologists, people of all different ages. The project was supported and facilitated by the Centrul Cultural German Sibiu. It showed that the project also works with a very divers group of people, the age of participants ranging from 13 years to 60 years old. Everybody has a story to tell or wants to change something in their own home city. Sibiu/Hermannstadt is a city in Transylvania, Romania, with a population of around 145.000 inhabitants. The first official record referring to the Sibiu area comes from 1191. In 2007 Sibiu/Hermannstadt was designated ‘the European Capital of Culture’.

urşov

Product design students from Transylvania University and people from various institutions of different ages worked together with us in this week. Participants proposing an individual typography for Brasov, developing a traffic survival kit, comparing the past and present of the city, analysing specific neighbourhoods and streets or promoting Braşov as the forgotten homeland of many of German emigrants. Braşov/Kronstadt is a city in Transylvania, Romania, with a population of around 253.000 inhabitants. It is located some 166 km north of Bucharest.

urbanTM

Students from the graphic design department of the Vest University, in Timișoara, Romania, explored their city for one week. Timișoara is the 3rd largest city and a municipality in Romania. Located in the Banat region, it represents an interesting mix of people with different ethical backgrounds: Romanians, Germans, Serbs and Hungarians. Supported by the Centrul Cultural German Timișoara, we and the students made the first research considering Timișoara  candidacy for the European Capital of Culture in 2021.

kaj kava

The outcome is a result of a workshop at the School of Design at the University of Zagreb, Croatia.

The participants created campaigns for street artists, showing how easily vegetables can be grown in the context of a city, rediscovering forgotten art and sculptures, creating a campaign for a neighborhood or developing a new identity for a modern progressive Zagreb. The name and cover of the magazine refers to a popular habit of the inhabitants – to meet, chill and drink a coffee; instead of turning something into action. The image emphasises that that from talking – new ideas can grow.

Плод

For the One Design Week Plovdiv 2015 we were asked to conduct a workshop with a group of local professionals in the city of Plovdiv, Bulgaria. During the festival we also created a personal social design project with the title ‘Wisdoms of the neighbourhood’. Giving the local people and small shop owners a voice of the festival by using their statements on posters and spreading them to a wider audience. In 2019 Plovdiv wants to become the European Capital of Culture.